DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGING - WEEK 4

 Choong Yee Leng || 0381980

Digital Photography and Imaging || Bachelor Degree in Creative Media || Taylor’s University 

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Lecture: 

Adjustment Layer

• The Adjustment Layers in Photoshop are a group of a super useful, non-destructive image editing tools that add color and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing its pixels. 
• With the adjustment layers, you can edit and discard your adjustments or restore your original image at any time. This will make your workflow in Photoshop more flexible and efficient, and is an absolute must-know.

Brightness/ Contrast

• The brightness slider is for adjusting the highlights in your image
• The Contrast slider is for adjusting the shadows in your image.
  

Level

• Levels modify the tonal values in an image by adjusting the levels of the shadows, midtones, and highlights.
  

Curves

• Curves let you adjust as many points as you want throughout the entire tonal range of your image.
  

Exposure

• Exposure lets you adjust exposure levels with three sliders: Exposure, Offset and Gamma. 
• Exposure will adjust only the highlights of the image, Offset adjusts the mid tones and Gamma will adjust the dark tones only.
  

Selective Colour

• The Selective Colour adjustment layer selectively modifies the amount of a primary color without modifying the other primary colors in your image.
  
  
  

Filter

• Using filters to edit photos is an essential element of Adobe’s graphics editor. 
• There are filters to change colour, add blur or create completely new image effects. Photoshop offers a virtually unlimited variety of filters for this purpose.
  
  

Practical:

Through the provided slides and tutorial video, we have introduced key skills for seamlessly merging a new object into an image and recolouring black and white image.

Merging new object into an image:

This includes matching the environmental colors, adding appropriate shadows, and creating reflections when necessary—for instance, when the object is near water. During the tutorial, we practiced these techniques by merging Shazam into the Heart Mansion scene:

Figure 1.1 screenshot of process in Photoshop

Figure 1.2 outcome 

We were also assigned a task to apply the skills we learned by creating a new composition using our own photo:

Figure 1.3 outcome2

Recolouring black and white image:

We explored more advanced masking techniques, particularly in handling complex edges like hair using the Refine Edge Brush Tool within the mask layer. In terms of coloring, we were introduced to using Solid Color layers combined with the Soft Light blending mode to effectively add color to the image.

This is the given task and outcome:

Work 1：

Figure 2.1 b/w image sample

Figure 2.2 screenshot of process in photoshop

Figure 2.3 recoloured image

Work 2:

Figure 2.4 b/w image sample

Figure 2.5 screenshot of process in photoshop

Figure 2.6 recoloured image

Work 3：

Figure 2.7 b/w image sample

Figure 2.8 screenshot of process in photoshop

Figure 2.9 recoloured image

Reflection:

In Week 4, I was introduced to image adjustment techniques, including how to seamlessly integrate a new object into a different environment by adjusting its color tone, as well as how to recolor black and white images. Both exercises provided valuable hands-on experience in refining and enhancing images. They helped me develop greater attention to detail, especially when working with tools like clip masking to create cleaner, more precise edits. These practices not only improved my technical skills but also taught me the importance of subtle adjustments in achieving visual harmony and realism in digital compositions.